


high tide

by galpalaven



Category: Original Work
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, Fantasy, First Kiss, Fluff, Mermaids, Novel, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Witches, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 05:56:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20773655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galpalaven/pseuds/galpalaven
Summary: A quiet moment between our heroine andherhero, on a break while looking for a map to lead them safely through the mist-shrouded Graveyard of the Ancients.





	high tide

“Come on in! The water’s fine!”

Ilya’s voice is breathless as he resurfaces, brushing his hair out of his face. As she watches, his eyes start to glow a little, and his silvery scales return to his freckled cheeks as his ears elongate, gills reappearing on either side of his throat as her spell wears off with the touch of the sea. 

Though she’s sitting barefoot on the end of the rickety old pier, she finds herself gripping tightly at the boards beneath her, staring uncertainly into the pitch black water lapping at the support beams below.

“It looks… really deep,” she says hesitantly after a moment.

Ilya laughs at that, and her cheeks burn with embarrassment as he turns a flip in the water, tail making a brief appearance before he swims closer. 

“You’re not _ scared_, are you?”

His musical voice has a teasing lilt to it as he grins up at her from the water, reaching up to touch her ankles lightly. His nose brushes her shin, and for a heart-stopping moment, she thinks he’s about to kiss her.

But then all he does is tilt his head, and she remembers he asked her a question.

“I’m not _ scared_, I just…” Nox bites her lip, looking away from his curious gaze and razing her eyes to the stars above. She doesn’t really know where to start, especially considering how silly it all is in the first place. She’s a mage. She shouldn’t be scared of anything, let alone _ water_.

“After the shipwreck, I’m a little… _ nervous _ is all,” is what she settles on after a few moments. It’s more honest than she’d been expecting, but it comes out easily enough. “Being on a boat is one thing, but swimming in the open ocean is… I mean, who knows what’s lurking under there, anyway?”

Ilya snorts, and she immediately glares at him as he covers his mouth with one hand and swims away from her a bit. Shaking his head affectionately, he smiles as he says, “Darling, the only thing lurking under here right now is me.”

“How do you know?”

He shrugs. “Contrary to whatever popular beliefs you humans have about merfolk, we are actually generally considered the dominant species beneath the waves. Just like you are on land.”

Ilya swims closer again, reaching up to tug gently on her feet. “Come _ on_. Just for a little while. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

_ Does _ she know that?

This whole adventure did start with him saving her life, she supposes. He hadn’t known who she was, and had saved her anyway, putting himself in danger to pull her from the wreckage before she was lost to the deep. And he hasn’t let her down yet—no matter how unlikely the odds of success, he’s managed to find some way to pull them through. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten that mad at her when she gave him that ridiculous surname while they were looking for a ship.

His soft voice breaks the silence, barely audible over the quiet sound of the sea all around them.

“Don’t you trust me?”

Nox blinks down at him, surprised. “I…”

He holds his hands out to her, smiling sweetly as he wiggles his fingers. “Come swim with me!”

She considers him for a moment, mind running over all the stories of sailors being dragged to their death by mermaids. All the old wives tales of sirens, luring their prey into the depths with their soft words and seductive gazes. Men and women who are never seen again, devoured by the creatures of the sea. She thinks of Old Man Bev, who lived down in that little shack by the sea, and his stories of the merfolk in the Graves—with their beautiful faces and razor sharp teeth. 

She thinks of her father, and all his cryptic tales of the sea. All the warnings, all the lessons, the guarded look in his eyes if she ever pressed for more information than he was willing to give. He raised her to have a healthy respect for the water, and all the creatures that lived in it. To never trust a pretty face too much.

But then she thinks of Ilya, of the way his nose scrunches when he laughs, and the way the sun had lit up his hair like fire when she first woke beneath him all those months ago now. She thinks of the way the little thoughtful line between his full eyebrows smooths out in his sleep, of the look of wonder on his face at every new sight and sound—of the pendant she still wears around her neck, sitting warm and heavy against her heart, that he’d picked out for her in Talmeria—and the anxious knot in her stomach loosens. 

If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it by now.

And that’s all it takes for her to slide off the end of the pier and into the cool, dark water—right into his waiting arms.

He catches her easily, managing to keep her from going all the way under as she falls into the water. Her stomach still drops at the sensation of not being able to touch down with her feet, and she finds herself clinging to him, arms tight around his shoulders as she gasps and tries to fight off the urge to climb right back onto the pier.

“It’s alright,” he chuckles, strong arms wound tight around her waist. Ilya’s voice is low and soft as he gently rests his forehead against her temple. “See? I’ve got you.”

She lets out a shallow breath as she tries to relax, watching the way the moonlight plays on the waves around them and trying to ignore the way he’s nuzzling sweetly against the side of her face. His breath tickles her ear, surprisingly warm, even in the balmy fall evening, and she bites back a giggle, squirming a little in his arms as he laughs and pulls her closer.

Maybe she should be a little more concerned about how easy she finds it to lean into his embrace. If she were a smarter woman, she’d be shoving him away, climbing back up onto the pier, cursing herself for being foolish. If she were a smarter woman, she’d have never brought him along, never let him close.

If she were a smarter woman…

...she wouldn’t feel so very safe, right here, right now, in his arms.

He’s mouthing hesitantly at her earlobe now as they drift in the water, and her eyes flutter at the sensation. She’d normally be flustered, blushing and shoving him away, but here in the water, the lines have blurred. This isn’t her world anymore, with its rigid rules and stupid etiquette. 

Here, in his arms, in cool waters of the bay—this is his world. 

There are no rules about what they are here. No code of conduct to dictate what they should and should not do. No societal expectations to stumble over. Who ever heard of a mermaid and a witch, anyway? What’s the harm in a little taste of the world beneath the waves? What’s the harm in taking a chance?

Who is here to stop them from letting go, just this once?

“This isn’t so bad, is it?”

His voice breaks her out of her thoughts, and her eyes open again to find they’ve drifted quite far from the pier. It sends a shock of anxiety through her, but before it can seize hold of her beating heart, he gives her waist a reassuring squeeze, and her attention returns to him.

Ilya’s eyes catch the moonlight as she meets his gaze, flashing silver at her as he grins, tilting his head as he showcases all those razor sharp teeth. This close, she can see the dusting of freckles all across his nose much more clearly, making it look less like a permanent blush and more like a spattering of stars across his skin. The silvery scales on his cheeks are the only thing that breaks the pattern, though as she reaches up to cup his cheek and smooth her thumb across the high arch of his cheekbone, she thinks perhaps they just compliment them. 

The freckles are so very human, but the scales—the scales are there to remind her otherwise.

“Are you scared?” he asks softly, still smiling, leaning into her touch.

Nox shakes her head.

“No, I’m… it’s not scary with you. Not as long as you’re holding me.”

Her voice is a bit hoarse as she confesses, and though her ears burn a little, it’s the truth.

It’s nearly impossible to be scared of what could lurk beneath the waves when he’s right here with her, holding her so close that she can feel the steady beat of his heart in his chest.

The way he moves through the water feels so strange, so alien, compared to the way she moves through the water herself. He doesn’t fight to stay afloat, or to move at all. There’s no real push or pull with him, as he leads them in a meandering, nonsensical path through the water. He doesn’t move so far away that she starts to get nervous, but he does pull away from the pier, where the waves are a little gentler.

When Ilya moves through the water, it’s as easy as her putting one foot in front of the other on land. He moves with the flow of the tide, following the current, his body reacting so naturally to the shift of the waves that he doesn’t even seem to need to think about it at all. 

He’s in his element, and she’ll never be safer than she is right here, in his arms.

Ilya smiles at her sweetly for a heartbeat, before he turns his head and presses a kiss to her palm. When he pulls away, he asks, “Do you want to know a secret?”

“Hmm?”

“I could stay like this forever, if you’d allow it.” Ilya leans in and brushes the tip of his nose against hers, still smiling. “Having you so close… it makes me feel like I could do anything. I could face anything the world threw the most treacherous creatures, the most unbreakable of curses, the deadliest squalls—all of it—if you were by my side.”

Nox’s breath hitches at his words, heart thumping in her chest as they bob gently in the water. She’s still clinging to him, both arms securely around his shoulders now. His eyes dart between hers as she watches and—

“Can I kiss you?”

Ilya blinks. 

Nox blinks, too, realizing a beat later with a sinking sensation in her chest that that _ very _ forward question had come from _ her _ mouth. 

She tries to backpedal, blushing like mad as she clears her throat and starts to mumble, “I, uh, I mean… um—”

“—_Please._”

There’s another beat of silence, and this whole interaction is so horribly awkward that Nox almost wishes some hellbeast from the abyss would rise to swallow her whole—before she realizes what he said.

“Please,” he tries again, voice soft, and she can feel one of his hands run up her spine under the water. “_Kiss me._”

She isn’t quite sure what to make of this moment, but there’s unbridled hope shining in his eyes, and it’s suddenly quite easy to lean forward those last few inches and touch her lips to his.

His skin is wet and cool to the touch as her lips sink into his, though the heavy breath he lets out against her mouth is warm. Distantly, a small part of her is impressed that humans and merfolk even had this small act of affection in common, that the pressing of lips to lips is so universal a sign of affection that despite belonging to two different worlds, they can both enjoy this. It’s a reminder that, despite their many differences, they are similar in just as many ways. 

Lately she’s realized—being with him is as easy as breathing.

Ilya starts to grin into her mouth after a moment, and the feeling is infectious, making her giggle into his lips as he does his best to keep kissing her. After a moment he nips gently at her lower lip, sending a thrill shooting up her spine at the prick of his razor sharp teeth. 

They deepen the kiss for just a moment, before a cool breeze blowing in off the bay makes her shiver in his arms, and he sighs softly. 

“We should get back to the inn,” he mumbles, pressing his forehead against hers. “We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.”

Though she’s chilled, she’s reluctant as she nods, idly drawing figures into his bare shoulders. “I suppose you’re right.”

He grins, leaning in to press another quick kiss to her lips. “Don’t worry. We can do _ this _ whenever you want.”

Nox snorts as he starts to swim back towards the pier. “Is that so?”

“Mm. I think I’d quite like to kiss you while I’m in my human form,” he murmurs, nuzzling against the side of her face again. “Touch is… much more vivid like that. Just thinking about it makes me feel all hot and bothered.”

Nox has a very brief flash of Ilya, with his fiery red hair splayed across her pillow, grinning up at her with flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen lips. She imagines him writhing under her, panting and laughing as she sits astride him and kisses him, deep and full, his hands on her hips pulling her closer as she—

“—have I distracted you that much?”

She blinks, startled, coming back to herself to find him smirking at her in the moonlight, one thick eyebrow raised like he’d been reading her mind.

She blushes all the way down her neck and across her shoulders as she stammers, “Sh-Shut up! Don’t look at me like that!”

He laughs, tossing his head back with mirth as she struggles to clamber back up onto the dock. As she struggles to put her coat on over her wet clothes, he hauls himself up beside her, and for a moment she’s again distracted by how inhuman he is like this, dragging himself across the boards to reach for his discarded clothes.

She only lets her gaze linger for a moment as he starts to shift back—he’s gotten so much better at doing it himself recently, she’s actually quite proud—turning her gaze to the sea as he dresses. The sense of foreboding she usually feels looking into the water at night is still there, but it fades when he sits next to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Ready to head back?”

Nox laughs softly, leaning into his embrace. 

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

It’s only coincidence, surely, when she dreams that night of warm, bright blue waters and the sound of his laughter on the breeze.

...she might be in trouble.

But that’s a concern for another day.

**Author's Note:**

> Long time no see! I've been busy with school (I moved to Canada and I'm in a Creative Writing Program! :D) and have been working on a fantasy novel on the side! This a snippet I wrote the other day to go with some Sims 4 screenshots I got of Nox and Ilya ;w;
> 
> See pics of them [here on my tumblr](http://galpalaven.tumblr.com/tagged/kiana+plays+the+sims)!


End file.
